Decision : CONF 202 21B.55
Byblos (Lebanon)

1. Commends the State Party for its efforts, in conjunction with the World Bank, for the rehabilitation of the Old City of Byblos and its social and economic revitalization;

2. Expresses concern for some of the proposed interventions, which would be incompatible with the outstanding universal values that justified the inscription of the site on the World Heritage List;

3. Invites the State Party to ensure that adequate resources, possibly within this project, be made available to support the necessary conservation and presentation works within the archaeological area, and especially the strengthening of the capacity and number of local staff of the Directorate-General for Antiquities;

4. Requests the Secretariat to approach urgently the World Bank in order to obtain a complete set of the preparatory studies on Byblos carried out in the framework of the World Bank Project, for careful examination by the World Heritage Centre, the Advisory Bodies and the Committee, before a final agreement is reached between the Government of Lebanon and the World Bank on the scope of the activities within this project;

5. Invites the State Party to discard plans for an extension of the jetty, and to engage in a thorough investigation of the under-water areas surrounding the site and the harbour;

6. Encourages the Lebanese authorities to develop a comprehensive urban conservation plan, including provisions for the areas adjacent to the archaeological site, the medieval enclosure, the areas of archaeological potential on the two sides of the Decumanus Maximus, and the zones to the North and South of Byblos, to protect the site and its buffer zones from further encroachments;

7. Strongly encourages the State Party to submit international assistance requests under the World Heritage Fund, to complement the World Bank funding, in order to accomplish the above-mentioned recommendations;

8. Requests the State Party to submit by 1 February 2003, a report on the progress of the situation for examination at its 27th session in June/July 2003.